A former picky eater discovering healthy living through eating clean and running.

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Taper week is my favorite…most likely because the longest run on the schedule was 3 miles. 🙂

It was the last week before the PRR Half Marathon!That meant I was nervous but couldn’t use running to get the nerves out. I’m okay with that though – I had a little extra time to plop on the floor and do important things like foam roll while watching trashy reality TV.

Thank goodness my apartment gym has a treadmill that works and all I had to do to get in the handful of miles is to go downstairs and hop on the treadmill. This is quite convenient with daylight saving time making it dark out super early.

The 2 mile run on Wednesday evening was at race pace (11:26) and gave me a chance to listen to some music on my iPod shuffle and contemplate what to put on my playlist for the race.

I did okay with my first week of training. Going from running two days a week to four days a week is a big increase for me, but so far my legs feel fine – it’s just the difference of putting more time in.

Here’s how the Week #1 went:

Monday: 3 mile run

Tuesday: yoga and 8-minute abs (cross)

Wednesday: 2 mile run (supposed to be 3 but trying to use the 10% rule)

Thursday: rest (supposed to be 3 miles) WHOOPS

Friday: rest

Saturday: 4 mile run

Sunday: rest

Of course a new training cycle means a new playlist. Though there are some oldies, (I get attached to running songs) I added a few too. Here are the tunes I’m training to right now:

“Fortunately, Ken had already begun doing physiological testing on triathletes as part of his kinesiology studies…Ken’s first test subject was Alan Melvin, a world-class Masters triathlete in his sixties. First, Ken set a baseline by having Melvin run four hundred meters full out. Then he clipped a small electric metronome to his T-shirt.

‘What’s this for?’

‘Set it for one hundred eighty beats a minute, then run to the beat...’

Within a year of creating his new technique in 1997, Ken became unbeatable, winning the world disabled championship the next two years in a row. Once word got out that Ken had figured out a way to run that was not only fast but gentle on the legs, other triathletes began hiring him as their coach. Ken went on to train eleven national champions and built up a roster of more than one hundred athletes” (McDougall, Christopher: Born to Run, page 149).

Yes, I’ve tried to count my footstrikes during a run….and yes, I always lose count within approximately fifteen seconds.

With Vicki’s cadence playlist from Spotify, the music counts for me! I recommend downloading any of the below songs – they all consist of 180 beats per minute, perfect for running.

Vampire weekend: A-Punk

Postal Service: Such Great Heights

Presidents of the United States of America: Kick Out the Jams

MuteMath: Electrify

Jimmy Eat World: Praise Chorus

Don Henley: Boys of Summer

Tinie Tempah: Written in the Stars

Metric: Gold Guns Girls

TV On the Radio: Wolf Like Me

Iggy Pop: Some Weird Sin

Billy Idol: Dancing with Myself

Black Keys: Everlasting Light

They sure helped me with my long run on Sunday!

What are some of your favorite songs to run to? (I need to add some more to my iPod!)

I’ve probably been to a total of five or six spin classes in the past few months.

Since I’m trying to focus more on running and weight lifting for the Tough Mudder, I don’t like “wasting” a running day at the gym spinning. The spin instructors I like only have classes at 6:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and half of the time those days don’t align with my workout plan.

While puttering around the gym on Sunday afternoon, I looked at the dark empty silence of the usually rambunctious spin room.

Then I had an idea.

I’m allowed to go in the spin room even when there isn’t a spin class! (I think I’m allowed, right Crunch?)

I planned to do just arms and abs that afternoon, but let’s be honest, just an arms and abs workout is kind of boring. I wanted to do some cardio beforehand, but didn’t want to put too much pressure on my joints since I ran on Saturday.

Venturing in to the spin room by myself was just so…different – it didn’t stink of humans like it usually does.

Kind of. I am being a slight weirdo and over-analyzing/over-preparing/being over-excited about tomorrow. But just because it’s my first race! Well, my first “distance” running race. I know it’s not a big deal, and you probably think I’m a nutcase.

But it’s so fun to pretend that I am an actual runner; that I’ll actually get to do a race recap and actually get to be part of the running world for a morning!

It actually wasn’t too hot out, but I was glad to run outside again anyway. The weather for tomorrow morning is supposed to be around 70 degrees, so I should be just fine!

This run was my last-run-before-my-first-race-last-renewal-of-confidence-run.

It was great. My headphones worked, nothing hurt, and I ran it in 30:37. My under 30 minute goal for tomorrow may be attainable!

Though either way, I have to remind myself that it doesn’t really matter. I’m only racing against myself. I’m going to try not to put unnecessary pressure on myself for no reason.

*****

I picked up my race packet last night at Pacer’s in Silver Spring.

I’m glad I don’t have to worry about registering in the morning.

I’m racing! I have a number!

I was stressing out what to do with my stuff during the run. I didn’t want to bring my iPhone with me and check it in the bag check, just since you never know what could happen. So instead, I decided to shell out $24 for a cool fanny pack racing pouch. Now I don’t have to worry about my phone since I can keep it on me! I’m also going to take my ID, some cash, my metro card, and some chapstick.

And don’t worry, I’m not so ridiculous that I think I need to use shot bloks for a 5K. I just wanted to buy them! I will probably try them out on my long run next week.

I’ve got my playlist all set. There will be praying to the running gods to keep my headphones working. Hopefully I will make my goal time so that Tubthumping will be playing as I cross the finish line.

I am currently sticking my quads with my vacuum cleaner hose because I don’t own a stick.

Since my hip felt better after a late night yoga sesh on Tuesday night, I worked all day Wednesday on mentally preparing myself for my longest ever long run.

I fueled with some healthy eats for lunch that were surprisingly filling.

And had a late afternoon snack full of caffeine and fiber that I later regretted. I’m thinking I should lay off the fiber before long runs in the future. ‘Nough said.

Afternoon snack.

My goal for the night was a 7 miler – which was unknown territory. Unknown territory is usually rather nerve racking.

Wish me luck, I may never return.

My thoughts on any and every run always proceed in the following fashion:

0.00 – 1.00 Miles: “Ok, I’m kind of tired. I would rather be on the couch.”
1.00 – 3.00 Miles: “This is awesome! Amazing! I love running! I am so fit.”
3.00 – 4.00 Miles: “Is it time to stop yet? Maybe I should shorten my mileage.”
4:00 – 5.00 Miles: “I hate my life. No, I can do this. Ahhh! Pain!!! No, you can do this.”
5:00+ Miles: “Dying. I am officially dying. I hope I don’t puke or faint.”

Seriously, running gods? Are you trying to jinx me? And on National Running Day, too.

Well they didn’t actually stop working, the volume just cut down really low and I couldn’t turn it back up. BTDubs, my biggest pet peeve is music playing juuuust low enough that I can kind of hear it but can’t hear it. I think my headphones secretly knew that. What an ornery old b*tch. (Umm, the headphones, not me. Duh.)

Luckily, I brought my iPhone to the treadmill with me, so I yanked my sweaty headphones out of my iPod shuffle and shoved ’em into my iPhone. No luck. Bruno Mars was still very softly crooning in my ear rather than shouting and me through dank beats to keep on going.

That was confirmation that the headphones were the malfunctioning piece of equipment. I think I sweated them out. Like, sweated so much on them (most likely build up from the past 5 sweaty months) that they broke.

I had no other choice but to rip them out of my ears and practice my mad pouting skills.

Recap: I was forced to do my longest run ever while running without headphones for the first time.

Before running today I couldn’t fathom those cray cray girls that don’t need any kind of musical aid to finish a run.

Running without music was so weird. I can see how people could do it with the adrenaline of a race, or maybe if you’re so in shape that you don’t need the motivation of sound to keep you going. Or maybe it’s just the musician in me that makes music a current necessity for me. Maybe I’ll experiment with running without music in the future, but for now, I need my iPod. Kthanks.

Moral of the rant: I completed my 7 miles, even with a big (for me) handicap thrown my way at the hardest part of the run.

I’m patting myself on the back right now, if you can’t tell.

After stretching for a nice 15 minutes, I headed next door to Rodman’s to grab a $0.99 piece of heaven.

Refuel success.

I continued my dramatic smart recovery with some frozen H20 love.

Better safe than sorry.

I went to bed freezing even though I was snuggled in my over-sized wool sweater.